Tag Archives: Civil Rights

I am a big fan of the Google Cultural Institute; it’s an amazing repository of Artistic Masterpieces, Wonders of the Natural World, Historical Artifacts, and more. By using it as a repository of digital materials, it’s an easy way to access cultural content from around the world in my classroom. I can pull up a high definition image of Van Gogh’s Starry Night and use its powerful zoom features so that students can see the impasto brush strokes. We can explore the Street Art of Sao Paulo with a Google Street View for a unit on modern art or the Ruins at Angkor Wat…

The Library of Congress has a series of resources for teachers that are specific to teaching Women’s History Month. The robust online resources provide a variety of primary sources, activities, lesson plans, and more that can help you bring the alive women’s history from the beginnings of our country through modern times and politics.

If you would like to view the robust library of resources, you may do so here.

Carter G. Woodson, historian and founder of Black History Month in America; courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

If your’e looking for resources for Black History Month, the Library of Congress has published an extensive online repository “African American History Month.” It focuses on the history of African Americans in popular culture, sports, politics, Civil Rights, art, and more.

You can view written documents, images, audio collections, and video as it pertains to different areas of study and focus. To access content, simply visit here.

“For much of the 20th Century, African Americans in the South were barred from the voting booth, sent to the back of the bus, and walled off from many of the rights they deserved as U.S. citizens. Until well into the 1960s, segregation was legal. Hear the voices from the heart of the Civil Rights revolution describe life before, during and after Jim Crow, Freedom Summer and Brown vs. the Board of Education.”

The accounts include transcripts, recordings, and other important artifacts of the Civil Rights movement. You can subscribe for free here.

August 28 commemorates the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. In honor of the event, Smithsonian magazine has collected a series of images, reflections, videos, and audio recordings that relays the individual stories of those who marched on Washington in 1963.

Today marks the anniversary of the landmark case, Brown vs. Board of Education. On this day in 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that the segregation of races for education under the “separate but equal” clause was unconstitutional. The case would begin the unwinding of separate but equal institutions throughout the country (a process that would take decades). In honor of the 59th anniversary, here are a great list of resources for teaching this topic:

Library of Congress – The Library of Congress highlights Brown v. Board of Education along with a series of other landmark cases, arguments, studies, etc on the issue of Civil Rights in American history. You can explore the LOC online as well as in person.

Ourdocuments.org – Explore high resolution images of the Brown decision as well as other documents related to Civil Rights and the landmark Supreme Court decision.